Articles

Research update: Bird songs shed light on stuttering

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Category: Research

Published: Sunday, 14 November 2010 14:48

Written by Lisa Wilder

The zebra finch is a rare bird in that its full genome has been mapped by geneticists. Remarkably, this has led to advances in stuttering research. The findings revealed that a substantial part of the genome of the finch is for the purpose of hearing and singing bird songs. This made the bird a candidate for further study, as its song “language” is remarkably similar to human language in certain respects.

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Review of "Yoga For Stuttering"

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Category: Book Reviews

Published: Saturday, 25 September 2010 06:14

Written by Lisa Wilder

Yoga for Stuttering

Review of Yoga for Stuttering: Unifying the Voice, Breath, Mind & Body to Achieve Fluent Speech, by J.M. Balakrishnan

I have been taking Yoga for about five years now, and have found it a very enjoyable form of exercise. Whereas I normally avoid going to the gym, yoga has held my interest for quite some time now and although I still cannot do a headstand or bend backwards all the way I have notice progress. That is why I was excited to see this book, Yoga for Stuttering. Although skeptical, I ordered it mainly out of curiosity.

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Beware of dubious claims made on website

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Category: Personal Commentary

Published: Sunday, 01 August 2010 21:32

Written by Lisa Wilder

A dubious website!

This article is a warning to people who stutter, and an appeal to everybody to help stop a website that makes impossible claims regarding curing stuttering, and has attracted international attention. The website claims to sell a taperecording that will stop stuttering in under 10 minutes.

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Blog Report: Pamela Mertz interviews Canadian women who stutter

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Category: Personal Commentary

Published: Saturday, 02 October 2010 05:07

Written by Lisa Wilder

Pamela Mertz, author of the excellent blog Make Room for the Stuttering has posted another episode from the "Women Who Stutter: Our Stories" series. The October 1 session features CSA Member Carolina Ayala from Toronto, and a previous episode (#22) features CSA Member Heather Baier from Edmonton, Alberta. Upcoming is Sadia Khan, featured in a CSA Voices article Students and Teachers who Stutter.

Review of "the King's Speech"

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Category: Personal Commentary

Published: Saturday, 11 September 2010 06:47

Written by Daniele Rossi

Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter

I had the pleasure of attending the screening of "The King's Speech" last night at the Toronto Film Festival and enjoyed every minute of it.

The movie is about the unlikely friendship that forms between shy, stuttering King George VI (played by Colin Firth) and Lionel Logue (played by Geoffry Rush), his speech therapist. The latter helping the former find his voice. Even King George VI shared our familiar self-doubt: "How can I be king and lead my people with a stammer?"

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Pagoclone Study not Promising

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Category: Research

Published: Saturday, 31 July 2010 11:46

Written by Lisa Wilder

After many years of testing, the drug Pagoclone, believed to reduce stuttering in some people, is still not available for general use, and might never be. As reported by Tom Weidig on his blog, Endo Pharmaceuticals is closing the initial phase of testing according to their website, with no plans to put it on the market any time soon. They are starting a new phase of testing next year. As it stands, things do not look promising for development of a stuttering-reduction drug.

Gerald A. Maguire, MD, is an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, the Kirkup Chair in Stuttering, admitted during a talk at the National Stuttering Association conference in Cleveland, that the current testing phase was over.

More information on this subject will be posted on this site in the future.